James River Branch: Weller Fuel Oil

Weller Fuel Oil Company, Part 3 of 3: The Tanks

I held off on modeling the oil tanks, and it's a good thing I did, since the business was moved a couple of times before finally settling at the back of the layout next to the gas station. As a consequence, the available space has reduced the number of tanks from three to two, which is a shame, but at least I didn't lose the business altogether.

I'd thought this would be a relatively quick and simple little task: it's at the very back of the layout, behind the gas station no less. It didn't need to be a work of art. But after I tossed together the tank stand using leftover parts from the A.J. Slick Fuel kit, I was quite dissatisfied; the tanks sat much too low, and they had no retaining enclosure.

So I bit the bullet and scratchbuilt an all-new tank stand, complete with enclosure, from sheet styrene. It was all assembled on a new building foundation, so everything became one piece. This made painting and finishing relatively easy and painless: I sprayed the assembly with Light Aircraft Gray, doused it with India ink wash, and grunged it up with some powdered chalk. Thus it wasn't long before this was installed on the layout.

Next up was painting and finishing the tanks. For a while I was undecided about the color scheme; see the reference photos at right for some of the choices I had. Ultimately went with white, being the paint used on the tanks at Queen City Fuel Oil, the primary source of inspiration for this project. I had lots of fun rusting them up, which I did by dabbing on blotches and dry-brushing on streaks of Doctor Ben's Weathered Rust and Realistic Rust.

Long ago, back when Weller Fuel Oil was located at the front of the layout (where the diner is now), I'd intended to fabricate a detailed plumbing system, with pipes and pumps and ladders and whatnot; at the back of the layout, this would constitute a wasted effort, so I just called it a day. It's still a photo-worthy little business.

The Queen City Fuel Oil Company has an interesting tank arrangement.

Small facilities can be detail treasure troves; note the variations in tank size.

Here's a great weathering example... how much longer will these tanks last?

A new tank stand, enclosure and office foundation are fabricated from styrene.

The finished business fits right into the town's aged industrial neighborhood.